Battle after the battle
by Saruta
Summary: With Mikumo free and Roid dead, some might think the war was over. But King Heinz lived, and could potentially still use the same words on Mikumo. And perhaps more importantly, the Cat Men of Voldor were quite unhappy about the way they were made to abandon their poor sharp-eared children - and had no taste for universal forgiveness at that time.


Freyja really did think that she would never have to sing in war again. That the few years - if not months - she now had could be spent in careless flying and singing bliss with the love of her life and, perhaps, her Walkure friends.

But Freyja was, after all, a 15 year old girl. Not your typical paragon of wisdom...

Captain Johnston departed at night, when everyone was trying to sleep off the weariness of last day's battle.

Captain Johnston might have celebrated like everyone else, and he would not tell anyone his own battle was not over. Anyone, that is, except his three trusted ladies of the bridge. He did, after all, need Beth, Yuri, and Nina to fly the Aether with its new, not entirely willing passenger.

The Captain was watching Mikumo very carefully for these last three years. Of course, so were Arad and Messer, but they were following orders. Johnston had a bigger stake in this game. Yes, he knew this exceedingly beautiful, composed, and wise woman was actually three years old. That was enough to hold him back from action, but can't a man at least look?

And look he did, which is why, among careless celebration by Arad and his pilots (not to mention Kaname and her singers), the Captain was the one to notice that the King of Windermere lived. And therefore, if he were to utter these words again in the presence of the precious Star Singer…

Johnston did not exactly know what the words were. However, Yuri, his trusty green-haired assistant, was an old movie aficionado (and a mercat aficionado, she could love two things at once just fine). So when the Captain was briefing the bridge bunnies, she dubbed the phrase "klaatu barada nikto", at which point their plan became Operation Klaatu Escape. Mikumo was half-lured, half-bundled into the Aether, which swiftly spirited her away in a series of increasingly far folds. While the Star Singer was not happy to be away from her friends again, she sort of got the Captain's point, though reluctantly. Also, Johnston reassured her that Arad had the endpoint coordinates, so he could help the Walkure reach her "once other obligations permitted".

The endpoint coordinates were none other than Old Earth. The Captain simply aimed for the most well known location, hoping to work out the details there. What he did not think of, however, was that Old Earth was buzzing with all sorts of military forces (and all sorts of political forces, too) after the loss of two NUNS fleets.

Notably, the CEO of Nyan Nyan was not at all convinced that the NUNS could defend a single teapot, much less the first planet of humanity and even less a single office tower in Macross City. So he gave a Fold call to another CEO. The S.M.S. were engaged specifically to protect Nyan Nyan HQ. And, of course, they assigned their best expert on Earth penetration to the task.

And thus the Aether was intercepted by none other than Isamu Dyson. Who, notably, was not at all aware that the spectacular woman inside was actually three years old. He was, however, well aware that she had a mesmerizingly soft, flowing voice - and that she looked sad. And if there was one thing Isamu Dyson was even better at than Earth penetration, it was making women happy.

Which he proceeded to do, pointedly failing to notice the murmured curses of Captain Johnston. The one who did notice them was Yuri, the green-haired girl who was actually quite capable of loving not two, but three things at once...

But that is the matter for a different story.

It is a common belief that cats are cute fluffy creatures. And, of course, the reputation of catgirls needs no reinforcement. It was not for nothing that Voldor became a mighty supplier of costumes (and sometimes brides).

But woe unto you if you ever piss off a strong, mature cat. And if your legacy if a crying little catgirl, you might as well start digging your grave.

The Voldorian Army was preparing for battle. And very few things could delay it.

One thing did delay it - the announcement of a cease-fire between the New UN and the Kingdom of Windermere and the commencement of peace talks. It delayed it for an entire day, as every mechanic and every pilot, including (newly-minted) Colonel Larrazzabal, was painting Voldor's cat sign over the NUNS insignia on the planet's sizeable space flotilla. A day out of a week is significant delay, isn't it?

The Council of Elders notified the New U.N. that Voldor is "not currently bound by its treaties" as the expeditionary force was folding away. It did not exactly have a choice - unless an outright coup followed by a swift military trial for treason was to be considered a preferable alternative. Larrazzabal could hardly hold back his anger when he learned that these fat cats were not mind-controlled, like the army was, and collaborated "for the sake of the civilian population". (Actually, few cat people except relatives ever cared much about the Voldorian Army, but that, too, is a different story).

The battle itself was more like a massacre.

Windermere no longer had its ace pilot. It did still have a few decent Knights and a ton of rookies in fighters, but how much good is that against a horde of really, really angry cats with proper NUNS training?

King Heinz duly sang, but after all they have been through, Voldorians could now mostly shake that off. As a precautionary measure they did hire Chaos with the rump Walkure, but by far the most impact from that was Reina messing up the defenders' communications. Also, when some stray pilots from other planets of the cluster belatedly tried to join the battle, Arad and Chuck had to pilot Kaname and Makina in their direction to prevent a possible Var outbreak.

The Voldorians did not use any dimension or reaction weaponry. Angry or not, Larrazzabal was still mindful of the rules of war, and Windermere's endless villages and apple orchards stayed untouched. But anything that tried to rise above the trees was wiped out, usually with a mass of rays, sometimes with missiles.T hat included some wing-suit flyers who thought they would do some recon (or something… thinking is not always a priority on Windermere, apparently).

Theo and Xao were summarily blasted out of the skies at the far approaches to the castle. Eject they did, and one of the SV-262s was apparently recoverable. However, when they finally got through to HQ, they learned that the mechanical works were all outsourced to Epsilon and now stood abandoned.

"Master" Hermann managed to take down a Voldorian rookie and damage another before Larrazzabal realized that this was a worthy opponent and pursued him swiftly. The VF-171 was not exactly as agile as the SV-262, but you DON'T. MESS. WITH. A. CAT, and besides, Hermann was not very young and not very calm. He crashed into the abyss next to the castle. Nobody knows if that was because of a few missiles to the wings or because he finally lost control over his body and his plane.

Bogue was trying to persuade the King to evacuate. The King, of course, refused. When the outcome became inevitable (highlighted by the loud boom of what once was Master Hermann - with whom Bogue stayed in communication until the last moment), Bogue simply grabbed his treasured King, stuffed him into the SV-262 and soared above the castle in Gerwalk mode. Too late and too rash - a barrage of missiles and rays later, Larrazzabal was above him. The Colonel switched to Battroid, grabbed the enemy vessel and, accelerating, rammed it into the ground. Bogue only had the time to eject Heinz before getting stomped, along with his mecha, into a bloody pulp.

Heinz was shaken, but alive. And he would not run. He stood and silently faced Larrazzabal with a defiant smile.

Larrazzabal placed the Battroid into firing position and trained the main cannon on the King…

At that very moment, a very familiar girl appeared before the cannon. Exactly the same girl who had stepped before this very cannon some months ago.

And to top it all, she was singing the same song.


End file.
